YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

I want to go back in time and take my innocence back
Refuse to sign my voice away for acceptance and a stupid pair of legs
Stand tall and proud like I belong in this world
Make it so my first kiss wasn’t my sister
Make it so my sister’s first kiss wasn’t my uncle
Undo it all so that going out on a Sunday night doesn’t feel like stepping on landmines
So Sex is not Mt. Everest
So Love is not the snake in the garden
And when I bite into an apple all I taste is sweetness

Well done! Thank you for sharing.

And I say this kindly and gently: you did say those words out loud.

We are only as sick as our secrets.

Thank you. Wow. Your kind words made me cry. The good, healing kinda cry. You know when you read something at just the right time. ‘We are only as sick as our secrets’ came at the right time.

It is because I took the dr. Seuss book back,
because I pick my cuticles til they bleed,
because I can’t dog ear the books I read,
because I replay how he said ‘okay’ on loop,
because I can’t hang out in too large groups,
because I have to keep the volume at even numbers,
because I ignore my stomach when it speaks,
It is because I step on the crack,

I break a persons back,
But it is not my mother’s back
I break

Thanks for sharing Nadidays. I hear your words and they touch my heart.
Heather

Hello Nadidays,

Welcome to the boards!
We're here to listen and support you...

I have to say, this is real poetry - worth reading multiple times and thinking about... Glad that you posted, and hope it's helpful to you!

BTW - Have you ever been to a poetry slam?

Regards,

SD

Thank you, Heather. Your response touched mine

SD,

Thank you for the welcome! And the nice words about my poetry

I’ve been to a few spoken words, but not a poetry slam, though I’ve always wanted to. I love seeing poetry performed.

It has really helped to post on here. Anytime I feel alone I read what others have to say and it helps so much

Loneliness is a trick our mind plays to keep us in the forty foot tower with no exits

We all fear
We all love
We all think about jumping from the tower sometimes

We don’t have to become whole
We don’t have to fix or tinker with our bodies
Certain we are the tin man
Trying to earn back our heart

There is no saving or rescuing
No war to win
We are not the damsel or the hero
There is no happy ending
There is just our lives
Needing to be lived
Wanting to be worn

There is only remembering
That brokenness is a story taught to us
By people whose brokenness was taught to them
And whole is how we are born
And whole is how we remain
Waiting for us to come home to ourselves
The fire crackling merrily in the hearth, as if to say,

You beautiful, silly fool. What took you so long? Come inside, stay awhile.